Earthquakes of iS68. 



103 



pigeons flew about as if somebodj' had been shooting at them. The shock lasted a 

 good while, how long I cannot sa}^, bnt long enough to make me feel sea-sick, and it 

 was with difficulty that I could stand. All the stone walls about the town were flat. 

 Fissures opened, and the brooks ran mud ; in one place a fissure opened about a foot, 

 and when it closed the two sides were several inches from coincidence." 



The land-slide referred to by Mr. Lyman, is well described by the Rev. T. Coan, 

 whose letter will be given presently. The most destrudlive feature of the whole catas- 

 trophe, however, was the sea-wave which swept the shores of Hawaii from Kahuku to 

 Kapoho and was felt at the most distant shores of the group. At Hilo the sea receded 

 a hundred and fiftv or two hundred feet, and when it returned rose about ten feet above 



high -water mark. Along the 

 shore between Kapoho and Ka- 

 lae, villages were swept away, 

 and even heavy stone houses 

 disappeared before the destroy- 

 ing waves. 



The earth continued to 

 vibrate, btit the shocks were not 

 very severe, until on Tuesday 

 night, April 7th, lava broke out 

 in Kahuku, and flowed some ten 

 miles then into the sea. The 

 exact locality of the flow was 

 afterwards determined by Mr. Coan. The schooner Oddfellow was cruising along the 

 coast of Hilo, Puna and Kau, about the time of the sea-wave and the eruption, and 

 from the report of a passenger the following notes are extraAed. As she touched 

 at manj' points, the information is of considerable interest. 



Salitrday, March 28. — Lakes in Kilauea active. Portion of the soiithwe.st cliff thrown down. 

 Sunday, 2g. — Shakes frequent but slight; one of them very peculiar in its motion commencing from 

 northwest to southeast, shook a moment, and then shifted to northeast and southwest. North lake 

 quite active. Shocks appear to have been stronger on the beach at Keauhou than they were at the 

 volcano. Thursday, April 2. — Severe shock at Hilo. Keauhou and other villages in the neighbor- 

 hood swept away. Friday, j. — Shocks very violent in Kilauea. Fire in Kilauea iki, Ihe south lake 

 terribl}- active, and enlarging rapidly. Sattcrday, /. — Saw fire on the hills at Kapoho ; could not tell 

 whether it was a lava-flow or not. Sunday, 5. — Made Kealakomo, Puna, at daylight. The houses 

 nearest the beach gone; same at Kahue. All swept clean at Apua. Reached Keauhou, Kau, at 

 seven a.m. and anchored. Found the anchorage and boat-landing all right. Every building, eleven 

 in all, washed awaj- ; not a stick or stone of them left standing. Portions of the wreck washed inland 

 over the flat about eight hundred feet ; heavy ohia sticks and a large spar were carried that distance. 

 In some places the ground appeared to have sunk, and the sea was flowing a fathom deep where 



L481] 



FIG. 68. CHURCH AT W.\IOHINU WRECKED BV E.-^RTHQUAKE. 



